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Interface News reporter | Cai Xingzhuo

Jiemian News Editor | Liu Haichuan

On Tuesday (August 13, 2024) local time, the United Auto Workers (UAW) stated on the social platform X that it had filed charges against Donald Trump and Elon Musk with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), claiming that the Republican presidential candidate and Tesla CEO attempted to "intimidate and threaten workers."

Earlier, on the evening of August 12, Elon Musk and former US President Donald Trump had a live interview on the social media platform X. The UAW described the live broadcast as "a disorganized conversation" in the post. The UAW pointed out that during the conversation, Trump said to Musk: "I saw how you did it. You walked in and said: 'Do you want to quit?' I won't mention the name of the company, but when they went on strike, you said 'It's okay, y'all leave.'" Musk reportedly laid off about half of the employees shortly after acquiring Twitter.

Such conversations led UAW President Shawn Fain to call Trump a "scab." The UAW believes that under federal law, workers cannot be fired for striking. And under the National Labor Relations Act, it is also illegal to threaten workers with being fired for striking. Shawn Fain said: "Donald Trump is always against workers standing up for themselves. He always stands on the side of billionaires like Elon Musk, who donates $45 million a month to super PACs (American political organizations Super PACs that aim to raise and distribute campaign funds to candidates for public office) to help him get elected. Trump and Musk both want the working class to sit down and shut up, and they openly laugh at this." Shawn Fain also made his position clear: "This is disgusting, illegal, and completely to be expected from these two clowns."

On August 8, 2024, local time, in Michigan, the United States, Democratic presidential candidate Harris and vice presidential candidate Tim Waltz attended a campaign rally of the 900th local branch of the UAW Auto Workers Union. (Photo source: Visual China)

According to the official website, UAW is "one of the largest and most diverse unions in North America", with more than 400,000 active members and more than 580,000 retired members in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, and more than 600 local unions. According to reports, UAW launched a strike against Detroit's three major automakers, General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, in the fall of 2023, which lasted for six weeks and ended with concessions from the three major automakers. CBS reported that UAW has been trying to organize Tesla employees. The UAW official website just published an article on August 14, saying that "the most ambitious political plan in decades is being launched" and fully supports the election of Harris as the next president of the United States.

A search found that Musk had posted about the UAW in 2018, saying "Searching for UAW and 'corruption' will result in a long reading list. It's a 'great' organization." In response to the UAW's remarks this time, Musk said in a reply: "The two previous UAW chairmen were both jailed for bribery and corruption. According to the latest news, this person (referring to Shawn Fain) seems to be joining their ranks!" Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said the accusations against Trump were a "shameless political stunt" aimed at undermining the former president's support among American workers.

Musk had previously been reprimanded for making related comments on X, according to The Guardian. In 2021, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered Musk to delete a tweet threatening workers who tried to organize a union, saying the tweet violated federal labor law, and Musk appealed the ruling. However, in a different case, he made an argument against violating labor law, which argued that the NLRB was unconstitutional. Trump has long been against unions and has rolled back workers' rights during his first presidency.